Is Women’s Cycling Having a Moment?

Kristy Scrymgeour thinks so. And as manager of Team Specialized-lululemon, aka the fastest women in the world, she should know. Bicycling caught up with Scrymgeour at a team camp in Portugal where she shared what she believes is the secret to capitalizing on that momentum.

Bicycling: You were press chief for HTC-Highroad, one of the biggest cycling teams in the world, and you are now general manager for the top women’s road team. What do you bring to Specialized-lululemon from your WorldTour team experience?
Kristy Scrymgeour: [At] HTC … I actually had a lot of different roles. I was working with Bob [general manager Bob Stapleton] on sponsorship. I was working on marketing design and, when I was at races, I was working as press officer. So for a good five years I got to learn about all aspects of running the company, which made it pretty easy to transition here. I learned about every aspect about a day in the life of a team.

The HTC women’s team was a model in some ways for women’s cycling.
I started with the women’s team, then I transitioned into the marketing and communications role for the whole team, so I have always been connected to women’s cycling and, of course, a lot of the girls who ride for this team were with the Highroad team as well. So basically it is a continuation. The structure is new but we’ve kept the same values.

Evelyn Stevens said recently that she has seen a lot of progress in women’s cycling just in the few years that she has been involved, yet at the same time we lost several big teams like Garmin and HTC in recent years.It is always one step forward and two steps back, or two steps forward and one step back, but we can definitely feel a real energy around women’s cycling right now. It’s interesting. Participation in women’s sports is really growing. You see it in marathon running, in triathlons, and you see it in women’s cycling. There are a lot more women riding and a lot more people interested in women’s cycling. And you see it here by the way we have brought in a big sponsor like lululemon. They come from outside of cycling and they are really excited to be a part of the sport. And in terms of the racing, the level is high, and it just keeps getting harder and the racing is just really exciting. The only missing aspect now is that people don’t get to see it. Okay, they get to see the Olympics or the World Championships maybe, but not the other races and I think that is sad. That is the next step.

There has been a lot of talk about equity and parity. In your opinion what are some things that can be done? The whole equity thing for me is not all that important. I don’t think women’s cycling is going to grow just by forcing it to be like men’s cycling. There are definitely some things we can do, like encouraging men’s teams to also have a women’s program, like Orica-GreenEDGE today. That’s a great thing. And if you talk to the management on those teams, they like it because it brings a whole other aspect to their partners and sponsors. And it is just a nicer atmosphere when you have men and women together.

There is also the suggestion to have a women’s race with the big men’s races. I think that is great, but I don’t think that is going to make the sport seen unless it is on television.

And if there are clauses in television contracts to include a women’s segment?
That is an easy thing to do. The only reason it has not been done is because, well, it hasn’t been done. The racing was set up. It’s nobody’s fault really, it’s just the way it has been. But it would be very easy to do, and it [would not] affect the men’s race since the women’s race usually finishes while the men still have 100K to go.

Mostly though, for women’s cycling to grow, we have to stop complaining about prize money and other things, and we have to make a big effort to make the sport grow ourselves. Women, once they stop cycling, are getting involved again on different levels, be it management or the media, and that is an evolution that needs to continue. But no, the sport is growing even though a couple of big teams did lose their contracts.

You are actually working to promote women’s cycling on TV?
I am trying to come up with a digital channel for women, because women’s cycling needs to be on TV. It doesn’t need to be the major networks or even cable. And it doesn’t have to be five hours of racing. We need to tell the stories. Marianne Vos is really popular in Holland, for example, and Evelyn Stevens is really popular in New York. Once people see the stories, they want to see them race. But first we need to get some sort of channel where we get the stories out there.

Who is a Specialized-lululemon rider that could really break through in 2013?
I can’t say Evelyn because 2012 was her breakout season with victories in Flèche-Wallonne and many others. But she still can get a lot better. The sky’s the limit for her. She’s got a great physiology, but what makes her a great bike racer is that she races competitively and she races with her heart.

But if I had to pick someone new I would say Gillian Carleton. She is not on anyone’s radar because she hasn’t spent much time on the road, but look what she did in the Exergy Tour last May. She got second in prologue and fifth in the time trial against a top field and she can climb. She’s got these huge track legs but a great power-to-weight ratio and a great attitude. She loves bicycle racing.

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